What mood are you in and why?

[Dr Gloom 19822]

18 minutes ago, Christmas Tree said:

 

 

 

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

 

 

In other words, fuck it  

You been on the bong?

[Christmas Tree 3997]

17 minutes ago, Dr Gloom said:

You been on the bong?

 

The only one who cared and that's how you treat me  

[Alex 30396]

44 minutes ago, Christmas Tree said:

 

 

 

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

 

 

In other words, fuck it  

Give Carl Sagan a credit at least, you cunt. Actually, he’s long dead, so fuck it

it’s a nice philosophy though. Easier to adhere to when you’re comfortably off but worth trying all the same I reckon 

Edited December 23, 2022 by Alex

[Renton 17765]

16 minutes ago, Alex said:

Give Carl Sagan a credit at least, you cunt. Actually, he’s long dead, so fuck it

it’s a nice philosophy though. Easier to adhere to when you’re comfortably off but worth trying all the same I reckon 

 

It's weird, but throughout the shit I've been through and put myself through this year, I've actually found just looking out at the stars - or actually more often the planets with the light pollution - incredibly calming. Just accept it, you're nothing in the scheme of things, just realise this fact and make peace with your mortality and insignificance. You were nothing before you were born, you are nothing after you die, and you are really nothing now. I suppose that's a variation on the small blue dot, I'll give it away for free without copyright.

 

Edited December 23, 2022 by Renton

[ewerk 26326]

That’s an incredibly depressing way of looking at things.

[Dr Gloom 19822]

31 minutes ago, Christmas Tree said:

 

The only one who cared and that's how you treat me  

Love you really mate. Maybe 2023 will be the year when we can rightly say you got the hang of this cooking/dieting/football/politics lark ❤️ 

[Gemmill 34441]

It can be liberating. Things have been fucking mental at work this past few months and at moments of peak stress, just taking a second to think "none of this actually matters at all in the grand scheme of things" is good for you. 

[Dr Gloom 19822]

11 minutes ago, Renton said:

 

It's weird, but throughout the shit I've been through and put myself through this year, I've actually found just looking out at the stars - or actually more often the planets with the light pollution - incredibly calming. Just accept it, you're nothing in the scheme of things, just realise this fact and make peace with your mortality and insignificance. You were nothing before you were born, you are nothing after you die, and you are really nothing now. I suppose that's a variation on the small blue dot, I'll give it away for free without copyright.

 

[Alex 30396]

3 minutes ago, Renton said:

 

It's weird, but throughout the shit I've been through and put myself through this year, I've actually found just looking out at the stars - or actually more often the planets with the light pollution - incredibly calming. Just accept it, you're nothing in the scheme of things, just realise this fact and make peace with your mortality and insignificance. You were nothing before you were born, you are nothing after you die, and you are really nothing now. I suppose that's a variation on the small blue dot, I'll give it away for free without copyright.

 

I feel really lucky living where I live. Out the back of mine there’s relatively little light pollution. I love just looking at the night sky. Also I have what you might call rural walks, more or less on my doorstep too. I see roe deer over my back fence (and loads of other wildlife) almost every day. All less than 10 mins walk from a metro that’s a short journey to the coast and the centre of town. I doubt the view out the back is permanently going to stay all fields but it was almost certainly just what the doctor ordered these last few years from my pov. 

[Monkeys Fist 38752]

I’ve a Night Sky app that shows you what you’re looking at. 
 

I’d not realised you could see the Andromeda Galaxy with your own eyes ( @wolfy ) - it’s one of those that you see better with peripheral vision rather than looking directly. 
 

It’s also quite scary how much fucking junk is flying around up there. 

[Dr Gloom 19822]

4 minutes ago, Alex said:

I feel really lucky living where I live. Out the back of mine there’s relatively little light pollution. I love just looking at the night sky. Also I have what you might call rural walks, more or less on my doorstep too. I see roe deer over my back fence (and loads of other wildlife) almost every day. All less than 10 mins walk from a metro that’s a short journey to the coast and the centre of town. I doubt the view out the back is permanently going to stay all fields but it was almost certainly just what the doctor ordered these last few years from my pov. 

sounds lush. Where is that? My

mother lives in the middle of nowhere -out towards Hamsterly forest, and it doesn’t matter how often I go back to visit her I’m always blown away by how the night sky looks without the light pollution 

[ewerk 26326]

4 minutes ago, Monkeys Fist said:

I’ve a Night Sky app that shows you what you’re looking at. 
 

I’d not realised you could see the Andromeda Galaxy with your own eyes ( @wolfy ) - it’s one of those that you see better with peripheral vision rather than looking directly. 
 

It’s also quite scary how much fucking junk is flying around up there. 

I’m must check that out, Santa is bringing a telescope this year so it would be nice to know what we’re looking at. 

[Monkeys Fist 38752]

1 minute ago, ewerk said:

I’m must check that out, Santa is bringing a telescope this year so it would be nice to know what we’re looking at. 

I think the official term is mammary glands? 

[Monkeys Fist 38752]

Also, this is the one I have, it’s free and works very well. 

( the purple one on the left, with CT’s dog humping the sofa on it). 

[Renton 17765]

44 minutes ago, ewerk said:

That’s an incredibly depressing way of looking at things.

 

It's really not once you embrace it. You're young, you'll see. Also....

 

[ewerk 26326]

It’s the comment that ‘you’re really nothing now’ that I take issue with. None of us are likely to be remembered in 1000 years but that doesn’t mean we aren’t really important to some people in the here and now. The idea that none of it matters is also incorrect. Some of it matters and the real key is figuring out what parts matter and what parts don’t and being able to deal with them appropriately.

[Christmas Tree 3997]

1 hour ago, Dr Gloom said:

    

 

That was a tea splurter. 

[Christmas Tree 3997]

1 hour ago, Dr Gloom said:

sounds lush. Where is that? My

mother lives in the middle of nowhere -out towards Hamsterly forest, and it doesn’t matter how often I go back to visit her I’m always blown away by how the night sky looks without the light pollution 

Lovely up that way. I sometimes drive up to Derwent reservoir to  just take in the night sky. Such a big difference away from the towns.

[Christmas Tree 3997]

1 hour ago, ewerk said:

I’m must check that out, Santa is bringing a telescope this year so it would be nice to know what we’re looking at. 

Not quite Carl Sagan but…

 

[Renton 17765]

36 minutes ago, ewerk said:

It’s the comment that ‘you’re really nothing now’ that I take issue with. None of us are likely to be remembered in 1000 years but that doesn’t mean we aren’t really important to some people in the here and now. The idea that none of it matters is also incorrect. Some of it matters and the real key is figuring out what parts matter and what parts don’t and being able to deal with them appropriately.

 

Fair point about the present and our interactions with each other. Of course you're not nothing to you, your loved ones, and further afield. But ultimately in the grand scheme of the Universe, you're inconsequential, and that's what we're talking about when we look at the stars or even more so galaxies like Andromeda PL mentioned. The Universe isn't just immense in spatial scale either - possibly even infinite - but also in terms of time. The concept of deep time is completely mindblowing when you study it. Even the age of stars is a fleeting moment in the history of the Universe. 

 

Anyway, as an atheist you have to come to terms with what death means honestly and truthfully, and that obviously becomes more pressing the older you get. Part of my coming to terms with mortality is just to accept my place in the scheme of things and not fear it. Somehow the night sky just helps in this, not sure why, just helps me  somehow. We've all got our own coping mechanisms I guess, sentience is a double edged sword. 

[ewerk 26326]

Hippy.

[Renton 17765]

I like this YouTube on deep time. Its quite long but worth watching. Projects into the future exponentially increasing as it goes on. Complete head fuck. If I'm honest, I always preferred the idea of the big crunch, but I think most cosmologists now believe the Universe will end in death entropy, the big freeze. 

 

 

 

[Rayvin 4964]

15 hours ago, Renton said:

 

It's weird, but throughout the shit I've been through and put myself through this year, I've actually found just looking out at the stars - or actually more often the planets with the light pollution - incredibly calming. Just accept it, you're nothing in the scheme of things, just realise this fact and make peace with your mortality and insignificance. You were nothing before you were born, you are nothing after you die, and you are really nothing now. I suppose that's a variation on the small blue dot, I'll give it away for free without copyright.

 

 

This is exactly how I see it. People think this is nihilism but actually I think in the end once you make peace with it, life becomes a bit easier. Nothing matters in any grand sense. Individual moments matter to individual people and as much as society tries to spin a narrative to hold it all together, that's all it really is. It is indeed liberating.

[NJS 3978]

1 hour ago, Christmas Tree said:

Not quite Carl Sagan but…

 

We had a thing before lockdown in our broader team where once a month someone could give a talk on anything they wanted. 

 

One lad did astral photography where you connect the telescope to a proper camera and also to a pc so you can drive a motor to track stuff as well as to process the images. 

 

More outlay needed but some of the images he showed were fantastic. 

[Monkeys Fist 38752]

18 minutes ago, Rayvin said:

 

This is exactly how I see it. People thi know this is nihilism but actually I think in the end once you make peace with it, life becomes a bit easier. Nothing matters in any grand sense. Individual moments matter to individual people and as much as society tries to spin a narrative to hold it all together, that's all it really is. It is indeed liberating.